Under the direction of second year Head Coach Doug Shank, the women’s team finished with an overall record of 12-6: its best finish ever. 

The 2001 campaign brought a few firsts for the program as well. The Pride was ranked regionally for four weeks during the season—and earned its first ever Dixie championship—finishing 6-1 in the conference and sharing the title with NC Wesleyan. GC was also a perfect 8-0 at Pride Field. 
 
Defensively, The Pride recorded nine shutouts and allowed only 24 goals the entire season for an average of 1.42 goals/game. Senior goalkeeper Christen Kozey demonstrated her veteran leadership for The Pride and logged 1,351 minutes in the nets. Kozey directed a mixture of veteran and rookie players that consisted of senior Krystal Luebke, juniors Adrienne Buttino and Kellie Plucinski, and freshmen Kristin Senges and Yvette Jones.

On offense, The Pride once again was led by sophomore Kym Maher. For the second season in a row, Maher led the team in scoring (36 points). 

Freshman Lindsey Selsmeyer teamed with Maher to give The Pride a dominating one-two punch at the forward position. Selsmeyer recorded 33 points on the season and became the first GC female selected to the NSCAA regional team earlier this month. Selsmeyer was picked to the South region third team.

Another freshman forward, Natalie Henderson, finished the season with 15 points. Between the three high scoring forwards, they accounted for 65% of the team’s total points this season. 

Two other bright spots on the offensive side of the ball were freshmen Katherine McDow and Shannon Kelly. Kelly was named to the Dixie Tournament Team and McDow earned DIAC Rookie-of-the-Week honors early in the year.

The Pride qualified for the Dixie Conference Tournament as the second seeded team. In the semifinal match against Methodist College, The Pride won 1-0 on a goal from Jones. The victory set up a championship match between GC and NC Wesleyan. The Bishops won 4-0, and earned an automatic NCCA tournament bid.

Maher, Selsmeyer and Henderson all received 1st Team All-Dixie Conference honors. Selsmeyer was also chosen as the Dixie Conference Rookie-of-the-Year. Senges was named to the 2nd All-Dixie Conference team. 

In a preseason conference poll, The Pride was picked to finish fourth in the conference. GC eventually shared the DIAC title.

In just two seasons, GC Head Coach Doug Shank has completely transformed the program. Fittingly, he was named Dixie Conference Coach-of-the-Year. 

With the departure of senior leaders Kozey and  Luebke, The Pride will look for veteran leadership from its core of returning players, and another strong recruiting class. 

“Our hard work and dedication paid off,” said Shank. “We scratched the surface and became a regional contender this year. We will build on that and set our sights even higher for 2002.”